Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2012
Innovation and the value chain in healthcare
For the past several decades, all first-year MBA students at the Wharton School who major in healthcare management take a required course during their first semester. The course, Healthcare Management 841, analyzes the entire value chain in healthcare (see Figure 1.1). A value chain is defined here as the string of firms and industries (sellers) whose outputs serve as the inputs of others downstream (buyers). Thus, in a traditional production model, a value chain links together raw material suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and end customers.
The structure of the value chain in healthcare is more complex: there are three key sets of actors and two sets of intermediaries between them. The three key sets of actors are the individuals and institutions that purchase healthcare, provide healthcare services, and produce healthcare products (purchasers, providers, and producers). Two sets of intermediaries separate these key actors: those firms who finance healthcare (offer insurance to the purchasers and handle reimbursement to the providers) and those who bulk buy and distribute products (from the producers to the providers).
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